A Different Kind of Fairy Tale (or, Toasties in the TARDIS)
by Slayergirl
Summary: Jack's first meal as part of team TARDIS turns out rather differently to how he might have expected. But better than he could ever have hoped.


"So, tell me about yourself, Rose. Where are you from? _When_ are you from?" asked Jack curiously as she heated milk on the TARDIS hob to make cocoa.

She gave a quick, sideways grin to where he was lounging against a cupboard. "I'm from London, 21st century, born at the end of the 20th. You?"

"Boeshane Peninsula, 51st century. How come you ended up travelling with the Doctor?" _And who is he? What is he? Where's he from? _ He might ask those questions later, but for the moment, he wanted to find out more about Rose. He'd already seen for himself that she was some girl – Some Girl, actually, complete with the capitals, and possibly in bold, italics and underlined; oh, yeah, Rose was something special, even more so because she seemed to have absolutely no idea how special she was.

She laughed. "He blew up my job, didn't know what else to do, always fancied a bit of travellin'. Didn't think it'd be all out here, amongst the stars. You don't dream that kind of dream when the farthest you've been from home is a school trip to Wales."

He grinned at her. "I guess not. What about your family, though? What do they think about it?"

The flicker of grief was so brief that he'd have missed it if he hadn't known it to show on his own face when people mentioned family. "'S just me an' my mum. My dad died when I was a baby." The sadness in her eyes caused him to reach out a sympathetic hand, gently touching her arm.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I'm sure he'd be proud of you."

There was a wry twist of her lips. "He was, in the end."

It was a strange, obscure comment that he knew he'd want to get to the bottom of eventually, but instead, he gave her arm a squeeze before dropping his hand away. "I lost my parents, too. Died in an attack on our home city. My brother…" he'd tried not to think about Gray, and all that might have happened to him, but the memories assaulted him hungrily. "I don't know what happened. I lost him in the confusion. I don't know if he died or was taken prisoner."

He found himself on the receiving end of a fierce hug. To his relief, Rose said nothing at all, but after a while, turned back to the pan of milk, catching it just before it boiled over. "Here, have some cocoa. There's biscuits in the tin," she added. "Or do you want something a bit more substantial? With never knowing what time it is, I just eat when I'm hungry. I can do you some toasties, probably, if you're hungry."

"Toasties? What are they?" he asked, puzzled.

She stared at him, open-mouthed. "You don't have toasties in the 51st century? You've seriously never had a toastie?" at a shake of his head, her face took on a determined look. "Right, then, Captain Jack, toasties comin' up. Now…" she went on, as if to herself, "let's see what the TARDIS has seen fit to stock the fridge with this week…"

He blinked; had he heard that right? "She stocks her own fridge?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah. Telepathic, dimensionally transcendent, temporally transcendent, spatially transcendent… sentient…"

"But… but…" _that's impossible,_ he wanted to say, but the words stuck in his throat. Because it wasn't impossible, was it? He could see for himself that this ship was far, far bigger on the inside than she appeared, had seen earlier that evening how she'd picked the music they were dancing to, and had responded with an approving hum when he'd expressed the view that she was a beautiful ship. He could see for himself the organic-looking struts and structures that adorned the ship like coral.

"Looks like we're in luck. There's some pastrami and blue cheese – that's a good combo if you like them, but mum always hated it when I put blue cheese in. Ordinary boiled ham and a rather good Feronilian cheddar – or I could do you cheddar and sweet chilli sauce, sounds weird but it's actually great. Or there's some chicken… ooh, and some pesto. Nice. Mozzarella and tomato… or, if you fancy somethin' sweet, the doctor always has bananas on board, and I always make sure there's Nutella – can't do without that – so I could do you banana and Nutella… or…"

He chuckled. "Just make me your favourite, whatever it is, there's nothing I don't eat. Can't be picky, when you time travel around the universe and get served up all sorts."

She dragged a few ingredients from the fridge, and chuckled as she set about preparing the toasties. "Tell me about it! I used to think I wasn't fussy until I started travellin' with the Doctor, and by earth terms I suppose I'm not. Still not keen on things like… oh, didn't much like quawrra."

He shuddered. "He gave you quawrra to eat? Yeuch. I hate that stuff. I'll eat it, but really… yeuch."

She smiled. "He seems to like it. Guess I'm still too bound up by human tastes."

"He's not human then?"

She could have kicked herself; why not just say 21st century earth tastes? "No," she said uncomfortably.

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna pry. Just… you know, confused and curious," he said honestly. "I'll ask him myself some time. It's clear the ship's alien tech, anyway. Never seen anything like it. It's like something out of a fairy tale… well, the kind of fairy tale we had, anyway, growing up…" he laughed fondly at the memory. "What were yours like? Fairy tales? You know, the stuff your parents tell you when you're a kid to explain stuff, all the moral tales… that kind of thing?"

She grinned; far safer topic, that one. "Oh, you know, the usual - princess gets kidnapped by the wicked witch and rescued by the hero, riding in on a white horse stuff. Or rags to riches, or something like that. Slayin' dragons. Defeatin' the bad guys. Fairies and unicorns and all sorts of other mythical creatures."

He laughed. "Not so different, maybe, though I suppose ours were a bit more high-tech… but I guess a hover-car isn't quite as romantic and dashing as a white horse, is it?"

She laughed with him. "Yeah, doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?" She greased the inside of the toastie-maker, and popped in the first little package. "What about the mythical creatures? Same sort of stuff?"

"Oh, well, some of them exist, of course. I've met a few dragons. Not bad company, most of them, the ones who got to earth were renegade ones who were banished from Kraken. They blow _the_ most spectacular smoke rings you've ever seen, it's a national sport, competitions and everything - you should get the Doctor to take you some time," he enthused. "Nope, for us the big fairy tale creatures were the Time Lords. We all dreamed of meeting one, but in reality we'd have been terrified, probably…" he glanced at her aghast face. "Rose? What is it? Something I said?"

"Erm, I…"

"Fairy tale indeed," snorted an amused voice. "Rose, I hope you've got enough toasties for me. Feeling peckish."

Jack noticed that Rose relaxed at the sound of his voice. "They're really not fairy tales?" he asked, hoping against hope that the Doctor would tell him they were real, and feeling like a little kid again, talking about his greatest heroes.

"Course not," said the Doctor cheerfully, snaffling a sip of Rose's cocoa. "Rose, you put sugar in it!" he complained.

Jack couldn't help but smile when she gave him a stern look, swiping her mug back. "That's because it's my cocoa," she pointed out. "I like sugar in it."

"Rots your teeth," he retorted, flipping a switch on the kettle. "I'll just have tea, then. Are there enough toasties to go round?"

She handed him a plate wordlessly, popping another little package into the machine. Rose grinned conspiratorially at Jack. "Don't worry, I made enough for all of us."

"Mm, cheese and sweet chilli sauce, my favourite," mumbled the Doctor contentedly through his toastie. He made his tea, and ambled back to the kitchen door. "Course," he said, with a nod to Jack, "I'm the last one left."

And with a blinding, manic grin at Jack, he was gone, back down the corridor to the console room.

Silence reigned for a few moments. "He's… he's really…?" croaked Jack.

"Yep."

"Sheesh." He sat down at the little table heavily, trying to get his head around it. "I mean… wow. That's… that's… _awesome_. God, if some of my school friends could…" he bit his lip suddenly.

"Jack?" She laid a hand on his arm. "What happened to them? The attack you mentioned earlier?"

Oh, yeah, right, he'd told her about that – something he hadn't talked about to anyone in years – just proving how damn special she was. "Yeah," he answered succinctly. And suddenly the memories came flooding back - of Gray; little Luci that he used to tease Gray about being his girlfriend; Jaymie, his best friend; Hana, the girl-next-door who was always getting him and Jaymie into scrapes; and Moses, her little brother, Gray's best friend. Gone. All of them, irrevocably, gone.

He didn't even realise he was crying until a small, gentle hand brushed some of the tears away, and comforting arms wrapped around him. For the second time that evening, she said nothing, just held him. "How old were you?" she asked finally.

"About fourteen, I think. Long time ago."

"Losing people you care about… dunno, not sure that 'time heals all wounds' things really is true. There's always a hole where they were, isn't there? Doesn't just go away over time. You just… try and fill it up with other things, other people, and get cranky cos they don't quite fit. Or you try and mend it with a piece of sticking plaster and pretend it's not there. Paper over the cracks. Hurts a little bit less over time when it's not so raw, but you never lose it, do you?"

How could this teenager be so wise beyond her years? He closed his eyes as she kissed him briefly on the top of his head, and watched as she went back to the counter and plated up his toastie.

"Careful, it'll be hot," she warned. "Let it cool a bit."

"Yes ma'am," he said, teasing her just a little. He felt a bit better; better than he had done in years. She was right; he _had_ been papering over the cracks, using sex to try to ease the pain, and it hadn't worked; he'd just forced it deeper and deeper down, buried inside him, until the Time Lord and his human companion brought it right back to the surface again. But he couldn't be sorry about that, not when Rose, beautiful and compassionate Rose, was standing there making him toasties, and dishing out wise words unlike the pseudo-comforting platitudes he was sick of hearing, but that rang true with him. She said it how it was – honest to the core, this one – but supported him through that blunt speech with a cuddle that had absolutely nothing to do with sex or attraction, and everything to do with wanting to help a fellow human who was hurting. Dead right, she was special.

He took a tentative nibble at the toastie, and discovered that it wasn't too hot to eat, and took a healthier bite of it. "Good?"

He grinned at Rose. "Oh, yeah. I could get used to this."

She giggled, and it seemed like music to his ears; he loved the sound of it, wanted to hear it again and again, wanted to cause it again and again, a sound of pure affection and amusement. "I can make more if you're still hungry."

He gave her a broad grin, lightness flooding through him with lightning speed. "That sounds _great_." Yeah; he could get used to this.


End file.
